If True Love comes looking for me, I'll be in the Food Court
by irma66
Summary: Logan spies a fiery blonde on his first day at Hearst. He'd like to get to know her. Originally posted on the VMHQ's Tumblr Milestone Follower 1000 Word Fic Challenge.
1. Chapter 1

Logan's fries had been cold for quite some time but they gave him an excuse to continue to dawdle in the Food Court even after his mediocre cheeseburger was gone. His real reason for hanging around was sitting a couple of tables away.

He'd seen the tiny blonde on the first day of school. She was in the Registrar's office, bullying the confused student clerk into a correction of her schedule. He was there to finalize his late registration. He'd only decided to register for college a couple weeks earlier. His plan had been to take some time and figure out his life while sleeping late and surfing but when the lawyer in charge of his trust informed him that he was obligated to enroll in college full time to trigger the latest layer of funds, he'd scrambled to find someplace to go. He'd considered signing up for six units of weight lifting and six of golf at a junior college but then he'd gotten a call from an old friend who convinced him to check out the school he was attending. Hearst College, in Neptune. Far enough away from Los Angeles to avoid any paternal unit ugliness and, apparently, susceptible to cash infusions in the form of exorbitant late registration fees. Logan's SAT scores were in line with your average Hearst student, maybe higher, but his grades weren't exactly stellar. High school hadn't really interested him. Way too much drama in his life to care about school.

So, while Logan waited for his last minute schedule to pop out of the computer, he watched the cute blonde with the sharp tongue. When she finally had the change she wanted— _'Criminology 101, not Early Childhood Education 10. I'm not interested in how to keep the kid from becoming a criminal; I'm interested in what to do about him after the little miscreant goes wrong'—_ and had stormed away muttering, Logan slid up to the dazed clerk to find out where else he might find the tiny spitfire. He had a successful track record of getting what he wanted when he got his flirt on and that day was no exception. He got a peek at the blonde's— _Veronica Mars, apt name_ —corrected schedule and then wheedled a transfer into the Freshman English section that she was in. For the second time that morning, the clerk never knew what hit her.

Unfortunately, after three weeks of classes, even after he'd planted himself directly behind Veronica in the classroom, he still hadn't had an actual conversation with her. He'd said, 'thank you' to her, twice, when she'd passed back a stack of handouts but that was it. She said, 'sure' in response once and 'uh huh' the other time and beyond that, they'd never spoken.

Now, he was watching her try to get rid of the guy sitting next to her with no success. It had been funny at first but after ten minutes of watching her try to discourage the puppy, it was getting pathetic.

"Piz, really, I'm not kidding. You don't want to date me. I'm a trainwreck. My last serious boyfriend? On the run with his kid with another girl. Before that? I got that one arrested for drug dealing. I'm a really bad bet."

The puppy made an earnest face and Logan rolled his eyes. "It sounds like you were dating the wrong kind of guys. I'm a _nice_ guy. I promise I won't do anything to make you want to have me arrested. And I don't have any kids with anyone."

Logan snickered. _Does he really think that's all it's gonna take with this one?_

He had to hand it to her though. She was still trying to be pleasant as she discouraged him. "I really don't have a lot of time to date. I'm working all the time. Between my shifts at the library and doing surveillance for my dad at night...really, it's a miracle I managed to go to the movies with you guys that one time."

 _Surveillance? That sounds hot._ Distracted by images of the blonde channeling Dana Scully, Logan grabbed a fry but as soon as his teeth sunk into the cold, greasy potato, he grimaced and dropped it back onto his tray.

"Seriously, Veronica, I know you've got an early shift tomorrow at the library. Even if you've got this surveillance thing, which really doesn't seem safe, by the way, let me take you to early dinner first. We'll have fun."

Logan was getting tired of this. He understood the value of persistence but this guy was ridiculous.

"Piz, really, I don't think—"

"Excuse me, Veronica?" Logan was nearly as surprised as the people looking up at him to find himself standing next to their table. "Umm, I'm sorry to interrupt—"

"Yeah, we're busy, man," the annoying puppy said with a sneer.

"Can I help you?" the blonde said, sounding relieved.

"I missed our English class this morning; I wanted to see if we scheduled study group. I thought it was late afternoon tomorrow but I wanted to be sure." He raised his eyebrows, smiling tentatively, pretty sure she would see what he was trying to do. To his relief, she smiled back.

"Yes, tomorrow. Right after I get off work as a matter of fact. Sorry, Piz. And actually, I need to talk to Logan about what he missed in class today." She stood up and gestured toward the table Logan had been sitting at. "You're over there, right?" She grabbed her tray and her bag. "See ya, Piz."

Logan backed away from their table, watching the guy's face crumple in confusion, then harden in irritation. Veronica didn't wait around, she went straight to Logan's table and sat down, pulling a notebook out of her bag. Logan threw Piz a two-fingered salute and walked back to his table.

As he sat down, she leaned toward him, whispering, "Thank you so much." The feel of her breath against his neck made him shiver.

"No problem. He didn't seem to get it so I thought maybe I could help." He glanced back and saw Piz slam out of the food court. "He's gone."

She heaved a sigh of relief and shoved her folder back in her bag. "Oh thank God. Now we don't have to talk about English notes."

He smiled and quirked an eyebrow at her. "You're not going to share?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You sit right behind me, Logan, did you think I missed that you were there today?"

His smile widened. "I didn't realize you knew that was me. We haven't really talked." He paused, just realizing something. "I didn't think you even knew my name."

She chuckled and blushed. "Umm, yeah. I heard you say 'Present' when the instructor was still calling role in the first week."

 _She noticed me in the first week?_ "Oh, we've never talked, I just..." He trailed off, not sure what he could say that wouldn't make him look as pitiful as Piz. "Huh. Well, maybe next class, we'll actually greet each other."

"Sure, and we've got study group tomorrow, right?" She tilted her head at him and he felt his stomach roll over in excitement.

"You know I made that up," Logan said.

"Yeah, I do. So, maybe dinner?" Her voice suddenly sounded nervous, like she was afraid he'd say no.

"Absolutely, if you've got time." He grinned broadly. "Do you work today?"

She smiled back. "Actually no. I've got a class that starts in a few minutes and after that I'm free. How about you?"

"I'm done for the day."

Her eyebrows scrunched together in a suspicious little 'v'. "Then why were you here?"

He ducked his head, then looked up at her, embarrassed. "Well, I came in for a coffee before I headed home but then...I saw you and thought maybe I'd stick around." He wrinkled his nose at her. "I promise; I'm not a stalker." She threw her head back, laughing, and he felt the swoop in his chest this time.

"So, maybe, if you wanted, you could meet me after class? Hawthorne Hall...we'll be done by 3:00 PM." She reached out tentatively, just fingertips on his arm, but the charge that shot through him was like nothing he'd felt before. From the look of surprise on her face, he was pretty sure she'd felt it too.

"Sounds good; maybe I can walk you over now?" He trailed his own fingers across her hand now resting on his arm, enjoying the spark between them. "Just so I'll know where to meet you later."

She smirked at him and he knew he was a goner. "Couldn't have you getting lost, now could we? Let's go."


	2. Chapter 2

_It's been 2 years since I posted the first chapter of this work as part of VMHQ's 1000 followers celebration. It wasn't intended to be more than a one shot, but I started messing around with it anyway, and as of last week, had written about 5500 words without reaching the end of a chapter. Then, as a result of the very cool Friday Fan Fic Favorites project on Twitter from allthevmfanfic, I was inspired to split out the action of that long chapter into this, and another chapter that is still to be completed._

 _Who knows if more will come of this after chapter 3 - I'm never sure what will make me want to write more. Anyway, if you enjoy this, you can thank jmazzy for encouraging me to let this out into the world. If you don't, eh, it's on me._

* * *

"Oh, Papa Bear, what am I going to do?" Veronica leaned her head on her best friend's shoulder, making a affected crying sound in her throat. "This is unnatural."

They were sitting on a stone wall overlooking one of the large open lawns on campus. Sorority girls sunbathed alongside a very aggressive game of Ultimate Frisbee and a much more kickback hacky sack group. "You're gonna stop making that noise, that's the first thing," Wallace said, shuddering. "Talk about unnatural; I do not want to hear that again."

Veronica pouted at him and he sneered and shook his head. "Nope, not that either."

"You're denying me all the acceptable expressions of distress. How am I to release my angst?"

"Oh for God's sake, you're ridiculous." Wallace shrugged his shoulder to push her head off him. "This is the stupidest reason for angst ever. Normal girls angst about boys who don't like them, not boys who do."

She glared at him and pulled her knees up to her chin. "What do you know about what normal girls do anyway? You're a guy with a brother. You hardly seem like an authority."

Wallace laughed. "I may not be an authority but I bet I know more than you. You certainly can't speak from any kind of personal experience."

Veronica's glare deepened at the slight to her femininity but he shook his head at her and she shrugged it off, knowing he was right. "Whatever. If normal means I'm gonna stress about some guy not liking me, you can have it. I am never going to care if a guy doesn't like me. Chances are good that he's a dirtbag anyway. No, my problem is this electric, almost first sight, kinda thing. I've never had anything like this happen before. It's like something out of a stupid romance novel." She scowled at the idea of being caught anywhere near a romance novel. "It's just not acceptable. I don't want any part of it."

"And I don't want to hear about it. Does anything in our long history make you think that I want to talk this out with you?" He shuddered again. "Let me help you with that answer. It's no. Nope, I take that back. It's Hell No."

"But, Wallace—"

"Hell, NO!" he repeated forcefully as he hopped off the wall. "You want to talk about this kinda stuff, you go see Mac."

Veronica scoffed loudly. "She's less interested than you."

"Dunno what to tell you. Maybe her roommate? She's pretty girly."

Veronica huffed and pouted again. "She'll probably make a play for him."

"Nope. This conversation is not happening." He turned back toward Veronica, his gaze softening. "Stop being a weirdo. So you're crazy about this guy and he's crazy about you. How is that bad?"

"I'm relationship kryptonite. You know that as well as anyone. This can't work and I don't want to get attached when I know it can't last. And it's too quick. It's just not natural."

"You dork, it seems pretty natural to me. Stop trying to undermine yourself." He leaned in to give her a one-armed hug. "You're awesome. The fact that Logan sees that makes him okay in my book. As long as there's nothing icky going on in front of me. You know I'm not down with that."

Veronica snickered and shook her head. "I am well aware."

"Okay then, on that note, I'm taking off."

"What? No! Why? Don't leave me alone to wallow. I'll stop whining, I promise."

"It's not the whining I'm avoiding now, it's the icky. Hey, Logan."

Veronica's head snapped around just as she felt a giant, gentle hand rest against her back.

"Hey, Wallace, what's up?" Logan straddled the wall, scooting up snugly next to Veronica. He wrapped an arm around her and kissed her temple. "Hey there."

Veronica let herself soften against him as her agitation drained away. "Hi." She smiled up at him but Wallace's snort of laughter brought her attention back to him.

"I've got to get going. You two be good." He took a few steps away, then paused and turned back. "Logan, she told you about dinner on Sunday, right?"

Veronica sighed. "No, I hadn't yet. Thanks for the reminder, Wallace."

"Happy to be of service," he said with a cackle that Veronica was pretty sure he learned at the Evil Busybody's Convention, and headed toward his dorm.

"So...dinner?" Logan asked, his head resting against hers. "Where is this dinner and were you planning to tell me?"

She sighed again. "At Wallace's house. You know our parents are a 'thing'. It's the monthly family dinner."

Logan pulled away slightly and looked at her, his brow wrinkled and his eyes serious. "Don't feel bad if you don't want me to go. I know it's kinda soon for you to even mention me to your family. I'm not gonna be mad or anything. Wallace was just messing with you." He leaned in and kissed her forehead gently.

"No, he wasn't. And believe me, they're aware of you." She ducked down, leaning her forehead against his chest so he couldn't see her face.

"They are?" She could hear the smile in his voice and she nodded, then leaned further into him, embarrassed. The arm around her tightened. "Veronica?"

"Hmm?" She didn't want to look at him.

"Do you wanna tell me what's going on?"

"Not really." She finally looked up. His brow was still furrowed and she had the urge to kiss the wrinkle at the top of his nose. "It's embarrassing."

"How embarrassing? America's Funniest Home Videos embarrassing?"

"Worse. And at least that kind of embarrassing can win you money."

Logan laughed into her hair. "Okay, so then if you're not telling me, should we go get lunch?"

"It's just—" She turned toward him, the near leg crossed in front of her, pressing against him. She crossed the other over his leg, dangling over the wall. He chuckled and ran his hands down her arms, then rested them at her hips before leaning down to kiss her properly. She moved her hands to his forearms and let herself fall into the kiss.

The shout of 'Get a room!' broke them apart and Veronica jumped off the wall.

"Come on," she said and Logan cocked his head to the side.

"I don't think that was an actual suggestion." He grinned and her cheeks warmed in embarrassment.

"Lunch," she said adamantly. "I meant, come on, let's go get lunch. Not a room."

"Ahh, yes, I thought that's what you meant." His tone was teasing as he stood and wrapped her hand in his. He looked down at her, his glance heated, then ducked to kiss the base of her neck. "Just remember, I do, in fact, have a room, should you be in need of one."

She smirked up at him before starting toward the Food Court. "I do remember."

"I'm relieved. I'd hate to think our time there has slipped your mind already."

"Not much chance of that." She spent too much time recollecting the time she'd spent in Logan's single dorm room for any of the details to escape her memory.

"Good." He pulled her into his side and kissed the top of her head. "If anything starts to get hazy, let me know and I'll give you a refresher." He opened the door into the Food Court and ushered her inside.

"Hang on." She stopped just inside the door. "I have to forget before you'll do anything to help me remember? I may have been wrong before. I think I might be getting a little unclear on some of the specifics."

"Interesting. A minute ago you had a mind like a steel trap."

She ignored the jibe and pressed on. "There's something that's nagging at me: that time about a week ago when I was studying for my psych test in your window seat..."

Logan laughed and nodded as he wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her toward their usual table. "Do you recall the part where you'd spent the whole night before that with me? For the first, and regrettably, only, time so far in our relationship?"

"I do kinda remember that." She tapped her finger against her lips. "Might need a little refresher there too."

"Open invitation," he said matter-of-factly. "You're welcome anytime."

"What I do remember is you leaving me alone in your room. That's why I was studying in the window seat. Nothing else to do."

"Oh no, missy, that is not going to work." They sat at their table and he scooted his chair as close to hers as possible, draping his arm around her shoulders. "I was ready to blow off my class that morning, tried to actually. And you told me to go. You didn't want me missing class when, and I quote, 'I'll be here waiting when you get back'. Which you were, in that window seat, wearing only my shirt." He hummed out a satisfied sigh.

She leaned in toward him, cupping his jaw in her hand, stroking her thumb across his cheekbone. "And what happened next...that's the part I'd like a reminder of."

Logan's sigh became a pained groan. "Then what the hell are we doing here? Five minutes tops, and we can be in my room, and I'll remind you all afternoon if you want."

"Growing girl. Gotta eat." She chuckled. "And you should probably eat too. I actually do have the whole afternoon free. You might want to build up your strength."

He darted in and gave her a hard kiss. "You wait here. I'm getting us pasta. I need to carb load." He jumped up and headed for the Italian counter.

Veronica smiled as she watched him go. It was so fun to tease with him. He always got her humor and he could give as good as he got. That had never been the case with Duncan, who'd ignored her attempts at humor whenever possible. When he'd confessed that his old girlfriend had come to him to let him know that she was pregnant, it had almost been a blessing. Veronica hadn't been able to push him back to Meg fast enough. By the end, she'd been so happy to get out of that relationship that she'd helped them sneak off to get married, then hide out from their parents until they were both eighteen. It was unexpected to help the guy she'd gone to Homecoming with barely a month earlier run away with another girl but she couldn't remember ever feeling as relieved as she had when they got in their car and drove off into the figurative sunset.

She'd moved on to Troy shortly thereafter, and he'd been much less stuffy than Duncan. He was more fun, and had seemed nice, and he was definitely more able to keep up with her humor, but as time went on, she'd noticed an undercurrent of skeeviness about him. After Duncan's straight-laced persona, Troy's less gallant tendencies seemed interesting. She'd agreed to go to prom with him but when he suggested that they get a hotel room for after the dance, she'd decided to use a background check to help her decide whether to go or not. She'd gotten a lot more than she'd bargained for with that decision and with cheating, drug dealing Troy banished to military school, she'd gone to prom as a solitary fifth wheel with Wallace and Mac. Wallace had been with Jackie, his questionable choice of a girlfriend, and Mac's date had been arranged by Veronica, something of a bribe for some assistance the guy, Vincent, had provided on a case. It really wasn't Veronica's fault that Vincent had a crush on Mac, but she certainly wasn't going to _not_ take advantage of that fact. Overall, senior prom hadn't exactly been epic. She wondered what her high school years would have been like with Logan around. One thing was for sure: she would have agreed to the after-prom sleepover if he'd asked her.

"Penne with red sauce for me and lasagna for m'lady." Logan placed the tray in front of her with a flourish. "Where'd you go? You looked like you were a million miles away."

She licked her lips at the food in front of her. "Nowhere that far." She smiled up at him. "This looks great. Thank you."

"You're very welcome." He sat down next to her. "So somewhere closer? Thinking of me maybe?"

"Umm, sorta." She took a bite to give herself a moment. "Did you go to your prom?"

He grimaced. "Yeah. I took the daughter of a producer my dad was courting to get a part. Boring as hell."

"I would expect you to have a more exciting story."

"Sorry to disappoint. I was home before midnight and we never went out again."

"Did your dad get the part?" Veronica knew Logan's relationship with his dad was strained at best.

"Yeah, he did." A shadow crossed his face and she felt guilty for putting it there.

"Well, my prom experience probably wasn't any better. I went stag with Mac and Wallace and their dates. I tried to just stay home but they bullied me into it."

"I don't get it. Why weren't the guys lining up to fall at your feet?" She looked up from her lasagna and caught his frank gaze. "I really would have assumed that you'd have the pick of whoever you wanted."

"What about you?" she asked. "I don't really see you needing your dad to fix you up."

"No, you misunderstand. It wasn't a fix-up in that sense. He told me to take her and I did. I wasn't dating anyone in particular at that point and it was just easier to agree."

"Well, for me, it was mainly because the guy I'd been dating exclusively for the prior four months suddenly couldn't take me."

He straightened up suddenly, excitement on his face. "Ooh, let me guess. Was that the one who went on the run with another girl's kid? Or the one you got arrested?"

"How do you know about them?" Veronica asked with a frown. _Has he been checking up on me?_

The excitement shifted to embarrassment. "I heard you tell that Pez guy, Wallace's roommate, on the day we officially met. You know I was watching that whole painful interlude."

"Watching and listening apparently."

"Well, yeah." He extended a peace offering of a forkful of penne and she let him feed her. "If I hadn't, you'd be sitting here with Pez right now, so I'm not gonna apologize."

She shook her head as she swallowed the bite. "No, I certainly would not be here with Piz. And you don't need to apologize, I just hadn't realized you'd heard about Duncan and Troy."

"Just the short version that you gave Pez that day."

"You know it's Piz, right?"

Logan shrugged. "Eh, whatever. So we both had mediocre prom experiences. What brought that up?"

"Oh, I don't know, I was just thinking about Duncan and Troy." He glanced up from his penne, a startled look flashing across his face. "Not like that, Logan. I was just thinking..." She trailed off, not really ready to talk about how much he made her feel, and how little her prior relationships meant in comparison. "Really, it's not worth mentioning."

He frowned. "If you say so."

"I do." She pushed her mostly empty plate away and tugged him closer. "Don't waste any energy on either of them. They aren't worth it. I promise."

"If you say so," he repeated, but he had that carefully blank look that she'd seen on his face when people realized who his parents were and wanted to talk Hollywood. She did not want to be the cause of that look.

"It was Troy. The drug dealer. He was the date who wasn't." She felt a wave of relief as his face brightened.

"Well, it's his loss." He scooped up his final bite of pasta. "Dude was an idiot."

"I completely concur." She looked at the forkful of food hovering in mid-air. "Gonna eat that?"

"I was thinking about it," he answered, "but I could be persuaded to give up my penne rights, if presented with sufficient incentive."

"You'd trade your last bite of lunch for...what? What would it take?"

"Whatcha got?" The waggling eyebrows were more silly than seductive, but the thrill of anticipation that shot through her was exciting. Even with the heat building through her body, she stuck with nonchalant.

"Eh." She shrugged indifferently. "I'm not certain the last bite of Food Court pasta is worth that much."

"How about this?" he asked, eyes twinkling. "You go ahead and have the bite—" he rocked the fork from side-to-side "—and we can finish negotiation of terms elsewhere. I suspect you'll have more to barter with once we're in my room."

She gave him a disdainful snort. "I think you have an over-inflated opinion of that pasta. Which is getting colder and more congealed by the minute. Minutes that are tick-tick-ticking away our afternoon together."

"Oh. I hadn't thought of that." He moved the fork closer to her mouth. "Here. Eat up and we'll get out of here."

She smiled and leaned forward, but only took about half the bite. She leaned back and waved his hand away, then covered her mouth with her hand to make talking with her mouth full less gross.

"Take the rest. Last bit of carb-loading for you."

He grinned and finished the bite, then dropped the fork into the empty dish and jumped up, gathering the trash and moving to dump it in the nearest can.

"Okay then," he said when he returned, pulling her chair out and extending his hand to her. "Better get a move on before the carb load becomes a carb crash."

"Incentive for you to work harder," she teased as she took his hand and laced her fingers with his, then tugged him toward the exit. "If you're burning the carbs with heavy effort, you won't crash."

The look he gave her was both heated and amused. "I don't think I've ever looked forward to a workout more." He pushed the Food Court door open and led her out into the sunshine.


End file.
